PhillyBaby

Our Wedding

Blogs I Love

If you haven’t heard yet about magnetic tiles or magnetic building blocks, I feel sorry for you. They are by far the coolest toy out there, and every kid (and um, maybe adult, too) needs a set. We are slowly building up our collection, but after a few months of use I thought I’d share our thoughts on the different types. In this post I will review several types of magnetic tiles. Here we go!

These are the most expensive out of them all, and rightly so. The magnets are super strong, and because the tiles have flat sides they can stand up on their own. We have the 100 piece set which retails for $120. To be honest, while it’s adequate it really isn’t enough tiles to make large creations. We look forward to acquiring another 100 pieces to build our collection.

Out of all the brands, I have found that Magna-tiles are easiest to use if you want to build big, interesting creations. We play with the Magna-tiles at least every morning and every evening. Here are a few things we’ve made together:

Sometimes my husband and I catch ourselves playing with them even when the kids have moved on to something else. They are just so cool. Both our 3 year old and our 18 month old love playing with these, but they play with them very differently. The 3 year old builds huge towers, and the 18 month old mostly stacks them and takes them apart.

While we don’t own the chassis set, we have played with it. It’s really fun to build different vehicles with the magnets. This is a great set to buy for a car-loving kid.

I’ve looked everywhere for the best prices for Magna-tiles. It looks like any Amazon lightning deal should be your best option, but they come up extremely rarely. Lakeshore Learning does allow you to use their coupons for Magna-tiles, so that’s a good option too. They don’t have as big a selection, but for the 100 piece set it’s worth using one of their coupons.

Note: These are really easy to clean up. Because the magnets are fixed within the tile, you can just stack all the magnets together.

I have only found Super Magformers on Amazon.com, and have yet to find them in any brick and mortar store. Super Magformers are also magnetic tiles, but they have cutouts and cannot stand on their own. With Magna-tiles you can take one tile and it will stand up, however with the Magformers you need to put a few pieces together for them to stand up. The “Super” denotes that they are extra large, so with only 30 pieces we can create big rocketships, homes, and towers. We’ve also made baby cribs and animal pens. These are a great magnetic tile for someone who doesn’t quite have the motor skills for Magna-tiles but who loves the idea of magnets/building. Our 18 month old likes these a lot. She will build a cube over and over again. These are also great when you don’t have a lot of time to play but you want to build a large structure.

The biggest difference, aside from the fact they don’t stand on their own, is that the magnets inside the tiles are barrels that spin around. That makes stacking them to put away a little more challenging as you can only stack them one by one instead of in groupings. In other words, if I have 3 piles of 5 magnets each, I can’t just put the 3 stacks together to make 15 magnets. I have to take apart 2 of the piles and individually stack the magnets. It’s not a big deal, but it is something to note.

Here you can see Magna-tiles next to Super Magformers for a good comparison.

Super Magformers have cutouts, so they are easier to hold for smaller children. They are larger than Magna-Tiles and regular Magformers. With just the one set we can build giant rocketships and towers. These tiles do not stand up on their own as the sides are rounded. The magnets inside the tiles are cylindrical and spin around. That is an important difference from Magna-tiles. When you’re cleaning up Super Magformers you have to stack the tiles one by one. If you try to put two stacks together, you can’t. You will have to take apart one stack first.

We will add to this collection as well. They are not compatible with Magna-tiles, but you can build giant structures in such little time that they are worth having too. We also play with these every single morning and every evening.

This is a great starting set for a young child. I bought a set for my 1 year old niece for her birthday. They are smaller than both Magna-tiles and Super Magformers. They are easy to hold for little ones because of the cutout shape. In our home we use these only as accents to our Super Magformer designs. However, I’ve packed them in a metal lunchbox for long rides and the kids enjoy playing with them in the car. I love that they are smaller and will continue to buy them as a first set for littles, but I wouldn’t recommend getting these as a starter set for an older child.

Note: You can buy these at Toys R Us in addition to many other brick and mortar stores (and online of course).

PICASSO TILES

I bought this set for a friend’s 4th birthday. I couldn’t spend $120 on the 100 piece Magna-tile set for him, but I really wanted him to have magnetic tiles. The quality is great and the magnets are as strong.

PLAYMAGS

This is a great little set to add to your collection. For less than $30 you have access to cars with infinite possibilities. This Playmags set is compatible with Magnatiles and Picasso tiles. I’m not sure about the other brands. It adds a great, new way to play with magnetic tiles, and it’s lots of fun to make trains, cars, rolling rocketships, etc.

If you have any questions about magnetic tiles, please feel free to ask. I feel like an expert after having tried all these different brands. I hope this review helps as we head into the holiday season! Buy some Magna-tiles this year!

Thanks for a well written, intelligent review of these magnetic building toys. We’ve bought Magna Tiles in the past for our grand daughters and this year wanted to increase their collection. With a few other brands being offered I wondered if they were all compatible and of the same quality as the Magna Tiles. You answered all my questions. Thanks!

We have Picasso Tiles and actually love them! I find them to be strong enough, but now I’m wishing we could try MagnaTiles too! Trying to decide if we should also get magformers or stick with the one kind… Anyway, thanks for the review!

Thanks for your review! I was looking on Amazon.com and was feeling pretty overwhelmed on all the different brands. There’s one other brand that I keep coming across too…Magnetic Stick N Stack. Have you tried that one? If so, what’s your take on them? Thanks!

We have the magnatiles and wanted to add to our collection
I just ordered the power clix by guide craft but wondering your feedback?
Maybe I should have gotten the super magformers or magnatiles chassis set instead?
Help!

The only problem with your review is that I now want both and that’s going to cost me a lot of $$!

No seriously, great, well thought-out review, thank you.

We have the Magnatiles now and I am very happy with them, but was wondering if perhaps the Magformers would collapse less. They may also be more maneuverable for my 9 month old, and be more plane-ride friendly?

I think Magformers are great for the younger age group and are definitely more portable. We love packing some up in an old school metal lunchbox for long car rides. I would go with some Magformers this time around!

We have Magnatiles and Picasso Tiles, and we love both of them. The magnets in our Picasso Tiles are just as strong as the Magnatiles. I always recommend Picasso Tiles to others now because the price is so much more reasonable. I honestly can’t tell any difference in them except the price variance.

Thank you thank you for the review. I almost bought Picasso. I am going with the Magformers for my 6 yr. Grandson who has very low tone (particularly in his hands). Your descriptions helped me understand how each type would work. A smaller tile that is open will be much more successful for him.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this review! I plan to get a set for my son for his 4th birthday and have seen a few brands with varying prices on Amazon, Zulily, etc but I’ve been reluctant to make a choice. I know he will play with these for YEARS so I’m glad to know that, in this case, you really do get what you pay for!

It sure is a case where you get what you pay for. It’s been several weeks now since that post, and I can still confidently say Magna-tiles are the best. We’ve added to our collection and are SO happy with them.

Thanks so much for the review! I almost got the picasso ones simply based on price, but if I’m spending that much anyways, I really want them to be sturdy! So, I’ll go for the magna tiles, I think. Thanks again!

We got the Picasso Tiles & Magna-tiles in the house.They are the SAME!
I don’t see Magna-tiles is stronger than Picassotiles at all. I honestly can’t tell
any difference except the price…..This is really surprise me to see your review about Picassotiles……absolutely not true.

I dont agree at all with your review, i was so worried about my picasso tiles as i didn’t see this review till after i had already ordered. My son is currently building towers with his picassos and absolutely no issues with magnet strength. It was a much more affordable option for us, as he has been coming home from school every day talking about magna tiles. He has not been able to tell the difference. Picasso are not a waste of money

I just ordered Picasso…then thought about canceling the order after this review… But think I will go through with it based on the comments supporting Picasso. They are in line with many amazon reviewing parents that insist there is no difference but price. You are the only person I have seen actually say magna tiles are better quality. I think the magna tiles collapse too easily. I don’t think they are that great and am on the hunt for something BETTER. Maybe magna tiles lowered their quality or something??? I don’t know, but I’m confident Picasso can’t be worse. I’m really considering stick n stack due to all the shapes (doors, windows, etc. that my daughter will love)…wish I could try them all!

How’s the quality now that you’ve received them? I think I got some really good batches of Magna-tiles. We were at a friend’s house recently who has Magna-tiles and they, too, were collapsing easily. So strange! I still stick with my original review though since that’s been my experience at home.

My son’s 3rd birthday is coming up, and I desperately want to get him some type of magnetic toy, as he really enjoys magnets. Thank you for such a detailed comparison between the types, it was very useful! c:

Growingtreetoys.com has the magna tiles 100 piece clear set for $120 (with discount $102 shipped). However, they also have free shipping on orders over $75 plus you can save 15% on your first order with them using code 39B49. It appears if you join their rewards program you can earn points that can translate to money by writing reviews and referring others, so you might be able to bring down the price even further.

Do you know anything about the Cra-Z-Art Magrific at all? They seem to be a newer item. I want to get a magnetic tile collect for my kids but so many options and so many opinions. Just wanted to see if you had tried these at all since you wrote this post.

I am going to buy one set for my 1 and 3 year old. I see many times you say Magna-tiles is the best but Magformers works with little hands. Do the Magformers have the same quality magnet in your opinion? Should I start with the Magformers since they are so little?

Since they’re magnetic, most of them will stick to each other, even if they’re of a different brand, but the sizes won’t line up most of the time. I have the ones from Shape Mags and they usually fit nicely with other tiles since it has more shapes.

I’m wanting to purchase Magnetic Tiles and just started researching all the different brands.

I have seen a brand ‘ Best Choice Products’ sell magnetic tiles for a lot cheaper than Magnatiles. have you had any experience with these? If so, are they any good and woudl they be compatible with Magna Tiles?

Hi! I purchased magna tiles for a four-year-old. He instantly started building things. But it reminds me of that game Janga. One wrong move and it collapses like a card house. When I hear magnets are superstrong I sort of expected more than that. Truly, does anyone know the strongest magnets? Or is this normal for magnetic toys? I want to add to his set and they build amazing creations but the collapsible thing like a card house is very disturbing to me. Please advise.